Motif 2 - Heart's Honor Bookmark

It's done! The exquisite Heart's Honor bookmark designed by Wanda Salmans.

Heart's Honor © 2011 Wanda Salmans

Tatted in Lizbeth^® 40 Peacock Blues, the bookmark measures 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) long. The heart top is 1 3/4 inches (4.4 cm) wide while the lower segment is 1-inch (2.5 cm) wide.

Absorbed in bright blues and captivated by quatrefoils, this project held my interest from start to finish. Isn't it lovely?

Admittedly, I got bogged down during stage two because my thread kept splitting and snapping. Once the setback was righted the lace was again pure pleasure to tat.

Thanks again, Wanda, for allowing me to test tat this pattern!

New Threads to Come
The next release of new colorways at Handy Hands will include two exciting new variegated threads. One my twin sister, Igoya, helped to name! It will be called Autumn Apple Pie. The other I helped to name. It will be called Blue River Glades.

Hold onto your hats, because all the upcoming threads are super-scrumptious! But the release dates may be staggered due to a rejected shipment (more on that later).

Tatting Tea Tuesday - In the Zone

Juggling multiple projects can frazzle the nerves but this past week I was in the zone. Let's credit the adrenaline rush from registering for Palmetto Tat Days online. I'm getting excited!

My tea for today is a tall glass of iced pomegranate apple green tea. It goes down smooth and easy on hot summer days.

Beginning Tatting - Level 1 Kit

This week:

• I wound 12 floss cards with tatting thread samples, loaded 6 Pony shuttles and assembled 6 new (beginner level) tatting kits for my class that starts tomorrow night.

Fleur de Lis Motif Sample

• I tatted a new sample in Lizbeth^® 20 #642 Lilac Medium. The rings on the sides are floating free to test a hypothesis fueled by Jane Eborall's awesome Diamond Mat. How will the Fleur de Lis motif look joined together into larger shapes?

A quick-n-dirty, not-pretty-enough-for-prime-time pattern is available for any brave soul wishing to test tat. Email me at the address listed in the "About Me" widget on the right navigation panel above. (Look for the red-headed cartoon girl.)

Heart's Honor © Wanda Salmans 2011

• Wanda Salmans' Heart's Honor bookmark is closer to completion. I'm half way through round two.

This is my "on the go" tatting project. It is great for tatting in the car or while DH watches TV shows I don't care for. This design is eminently preferable to "Mansquito" or Sasquatch or Ghost Hunter TV. (Apologies to fans of these shows. They are just not my cup of tea.)

Lizbeth^® 40 Peacock Blues is the thread I am using for Wanda's lovely bookmark. It looks pretty to me, but sometimes I am not a good judge of a variegated thread overpowering a design. Do tell: do you think Wanda's design is getting lost?

Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon © 2008 Anne Bruvold

• I began a test tat of Anne Bruvold's Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon in pastel-colored quilting cotton blended with a sample of YLI red-gold variegated thread CrazyMom sent me.Thanks, CrazyMom, I have been so anxious to try the sparkly threads you sent.
• As I mentioned, I registered for Palmetto Tat Days online.  Wheeee! 
• I registered The Sprout for his second year of preschool. Where has this summer gone?

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Fleur de Lis Figure

Playing around with the fleur de lis edging led to this lovely surprise. The figure is 3 inches (7.6 cm) long and 1 1/2 inches wide (4 cm) tatted in size 20 thread.

You are looking at an unblocked test tat using three shuttles. Many attempts to keep the shuttle count down to two ended in missteps, but also led to new discoveries.

I am cheered, delighted and excited by this outcome.

This figure CAN be tatted using two shuttles, but would require the second four-ring cluster (the top part of the fleur de lis) to be tatted separately and attached as you go.

To tat it all in one pass was a bit more tricky. The issue was throwing off a ring and chain combo from a SCMR.

For those who don't mind two extra ends to hide, using two shuttles would be easier.

I will be writing out this pattern to share!

While the process did not yield a fleur de lis edging, it produced other tat bits and built my design confidence. In the end I do think that a fleur de lis edging will come forth.

I Make These Mistakes...
...so you don't have to. See the uneven chain? I hid the final two ends in the wrong place. Click on the image above for a close-up.

Now I turn by tatting focus back to an unfinished project - Wanda's Hearts Honor Bookmark. (Sorry for the blurry cell phone photo.)

Absorbed in bright color and captivated by the split chains down the center, this second stage is even more fun than the first. The first stage was pure pleasure to tat! The rest should go smoothly and will result in what is sure to be an all-time favorite bookmark.

Thanks again, Wanda, for allowing me to test tat this pattern!

"What is so rare as a day in June?"

"Then, if ever, come perfect days.”
by James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

Today I type from the playground on a beautiful, breezy sunny day. The kids are out in droves to PLAY!

The Sprout is in his favorite spot - the sandbox - scooping and sand-dozing with a shovel, bucket and a front-loader toy. We're at the Fantasy Playground, a wonderland of wooden bridges, tunnels, alcoves and nooks. A great place for imaginative play.

This Tatting Tea Tuesday finds me still in catch-up mode and dreaming of Palmetto Tat Days in September.

I managed to finally mail a notecard with the Margaret Daisy motif to Fox. (This photo is a teaser. You can barely see it sitting coyly beneath one of my teacups.)

See this awesome digital transfer I found on Etsy? Tea o'clock! Can't wait to put it on something. It just seems so suitable for a tatting frame of mind.

Would it be too abstruse (<-- word of the day!) to transfer this onto a t-shirt and print underneath: "It's always tatting time somewhere."
 
Irons in the Fire
I am working on a few tatting projects. One is a lanyard for my Tat Days ID tag. Another is an airplane for a baby onesie. I have completed samples for Doretha Albee's Rose Medalion and her original design using the SCMR (published in "Tatting Knots and Notes," Vol. 13, Issue 5, April 1999). I have started round 2 of Mindy Al-Aaraji's Clover Motif. Test tatting continues for Wanda's Heart's Honor bookmark. And last but not least is a split ring edging for a silly project I have been thinking about.

Normally working on multiple projects is the way I work best, but juggling is starting to frazzle my focus, so it is time to get 'em done.

Here are a few photos of these works in progress.